Enough already with the fetishism about eReaders! It's the market for Smartphones and Netbooks that's advancing in leaps and bounds.
Shipments of netbooks have gone up 103% (Engadget) and while they're nowhere close to equaling sales of more traditional laptops, both of these devices are about to be left in the dust by smartphone sales (InformationWeek).
The question from a library perspective is how to accommodate a clear consumer preference for devices like this. That's where the focus should be. That's why when faced with two distribution methods, one relying on a netbook/smartphone or one relying on a library-issued ebook, it probably would make sense to choose the former.
So yes, everybody and his mother has sent me a message about the Conflicker Worm that's supposed to strike on April 1.
All I can say is, April Fools to you too!*
(*I mean, some of us remember Y2K.)
I upgraded my computer to Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) over Thanksgiving. I'm now getting used to some of the "over 300" improvements in the system.
I think the absolutely best new feature -- in fact the feature that sold me on Leopard -- is Time Machine where back-ups are built into the operating system. For years we've gone around telling people, "Always back up your computer" -- with the likelihood of anyone actually doing it around nil.
Here comes Apple and they make it part of the operating system! Really I think this is the most remarkable thing I've seen since they incorporated iLife into the OS. Amazing stuff.
